The Gift of Inner Wounds

I do not believe that once our eyes are opened, we will fall back into
a complacent sleep. Nor do I believe that our inner wounds, once
healed, will be forgotten and wasted. God's spirit wastes nothing! We
are told in the twentieth chapter of John that the risen Jesus showed
Thomas and the other disciples his wounds. I used to wonder why those
wounds remained on his risen body of light. Why weren't those earthly
marks of suffering swallowed up, forgotten, in glory? Was it so his
friends could identify him? Partly. But I think there was a more
important reason. I think all his friends through the ages to come
were being shown that wounds, especially when healed, can become
sources and signs of new radiance of life. No longer the sources of
pain and despair, the wounds now healed can become the channels of
healing for others. ...

The Comforter, the Holy Spirit, will not remove the lines of hard-won
experience from our faces. A new power of light, the light of the
divine passionate compassion, will shine through those lines on our
faces.
-- Flora Slosson Wuellner, PRAYER, STRESS, AND OUR INNER WOUNDS